Routine
 
 

While I wouldn’t call introverts lazy, I would say we frequently operate in energy-saving mode. And energy-saving mode can show up as routine. Routines can be warm and fuzzy and familiar and comforting. Sometimes that’s what you need, like if you’ve gone through a difficult time and need some space to find yourself again. But at other times routine can surround us and swallow us with their sense of familiarity. Before we know it, when we look up from the book we just started, we’re two years older.

What if we don’t want time to pass quickly? What if we want to savor our hours and years? As a New York Times profile of neuroscientist David Eagleman notes, “The more familiar the world becomes, the less information your brain writes down, and the more quickly time seems to pass.” One way to make the world less “familiar” is by breaking routines. Breaking a routine doesn’t have to mean going to a party or going skydiving. You can create mini breaks in your routine by moving your reading chair into a different corner, or going to see a movie you wouldn’t normally see.

Here are 4 more tips for quietly breaking out of routines:
1. Do your relaxing activities somewhere different. Read in the park instead of on your couch. Do your daily run down a different street.
2. Learn something new. Have you always wanted to learn to knit or the art of flower arranging? Take a class at a community college or pick up an instructional book from the library.
3. Spend a whole day doing something different. Go explore a nearby town, or spend a whole day coffee-shop hopping (or library hopping). If you work from home, try a coworking space (but speaking from experience, bring noise canceling headphones). Go camping and talk to the trees.
4. Do your routine tasks in a different order. Wash the dishes in the morning instead of the evening (if you listen to music while you wash, try listening to a different genre). Buy groceries at a different time (or at a different store).

What do you do when you want to take a break from your routines? Let me know in the comments section.